No other player in this year’s Open Championship field has likely had a route into the game like Ashton Turner. The 22-year-old from Alford in Lincolnshire was only given a club at the age of three in an attempt to improve his balance and have some brief respite from endless hours of physio. Turner had a form of cerebral palsy called ataxia.
“They discovered it when I fell into a fish tank and I fractured my skull when I was one. I would only walk on my toes, I couldn’t put my heel on the floor properly so I had to have lots of physio. And when I did fall over I wouldn’t put my hands out so, for the first three years at school, I had to wear a crash helmet,” Turner explained.
“They predicted that I wouldn’t be able to walk properly and I fell into golf because of that. I started when I was nearly three with some balls in the backyard and I got my first little club when I was four. At six I got cleared of the whole issue.”
Turner is coached by Paul Spence at Kenwick Park. He has been through the whole England set-up, he captained GB&I to victory over Europe in the Jacques Léglise Trophy in 2013 and he was part of the same boys’ squad as Matt Fitzpatrick, but he is still with the same coach that he has had for the past 18 years.
“I first met him at the golf club when he was nearly four,” Spence explained. “He had some health issues as a toddler so they advised him to help golf to help with his balance and co-ordination. He then progressed from Wee Wonders to representing England at every level. He got to scratch at maybe 14 or 15.
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“His game is pretty solid, he has always been a very impressive and powerful striker and that’s what his game is built around. And he’s strong mentally.”
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Sixteen years on he is preparing for his Open debut having turned pro in 2016. Last year he divided his time between the EuroPro and Challenge Tours, this year he’s keeping things closer to home.
“What I have learnt since turning pro is to not split myself between two tours. I had eight invites on the Challenge Tour which I spread out over the season. If I did it again I would put them all together.”
His last competitive round ahead of Final Qualifying came with a 76 at Cumberwell Park to miss the cut at a EuroPro event, four days later he was part of the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie. He had been 4 over after seven holes in Regional Qualifying at Fairhaven before making it through on +2.
Turner had been to FQ in the previous two years and Regional Qualifying at Moortown long before that and three-quarters of the way into it there was little sign of what was to follow.
“The first 26 holes were really frustrating and I should have been quite a few under. There was a scoreboard by the 9th tee and I was about 6th.”
With the wind down and off the right over the last six holes the plan was to try and play the back nine a couple under: “I holed a 20-footer for a two at 9. I hate the tee shot at 10, the wind was into and off the left and all I could see was the field and out of bounds.”
Who is Turner hoping to pair with at Carnoustie? Interview continues on the next page…
But another 20-footer saw him pick up another shot before a sand save at 13, after short-siding himself, kept things going after a bogey at 12.
“At 14 I holed another 20-footer, I hit the pin at 15 so that was about two feet away so that got me to 3 under.”
And a reachable par 4 and 5 to come in the next two holes…
“At 16 the pin was on the top right tier so I was just trying to hit 3-wood into the trap short but with the adrenaline I landed it on and it bounced through the back. It was in some pretty deep bund and not lying great, to be honest I just wanted to bundle it six feet past.
“I hit a duff on purpose, it snagged up on the fringe but then began to trickle down. From eight feet out it didn’t look like going anywhere else.”
Cue sweaty palms, racing thoughts and just two holes to overcome to tee it up in your first major.
If you haven’t played Hollinwell, to help set the scene, the 17th is a 501-yard gently dog-legged par 5 while the last, pictured above, is 460 yards off the tips.
“It was all pretty mental from there, 17 was playing pretty simple but my heart was going 10 to the dozen. The plan was to not flirt with the fairway bunkers so I hit a 6-iron off the tee, it would normally go 200 yards but with all the adrenaline and baked fairways it went about 270. I hit an 8 to the edge and got up and down for another birdie.
“By this point I was trying to do every type of breathing technique possible but they didn’t seem to be making much difference!
“Normally I would hit driver or 3-wood at 18 but I just told my caddie to give me a club that wouldn’t put me in any trouble. My caddie, Lyle Phillips, was really good, I don’t know what was going on inside but on the outside he was as cool as a cucumber. So we worked out we could hit two 7-irons and still get there and, as it turned out, I hit an 8 onto the front edge for a par.”
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Come the end of the day Turner had made it by five shots, returning to Carnoustie where he played in the 2015 Amateur, with Oliver Wilson and Rhys Enoch of Wales picking up the other spots from the 60 hopefuls.
In the process he won just over £2,000 which will be particularly welcome given that money is tight and sponsorship opportunities fairly limited at this point in his career.
For his coach Spence it will be a first on many levels.
“I’ve never been to an Open. I got married on Open weekend and we had a child that week so I’ll be missing my 10th wedding anniversary and daughter’s birthday so I’m not in the best books!”
As for Turner he’ll be doing his usual thing; walk a few holes on Sunday, 18 holes on Monday and two lots of nine on Tuesday and Wednesday. But in slightly more exalted company than he is used to.
“The biggest thing is to not get distracted by what clubs others are hitting. Otherwise I will try to keep things as normal as possible but maybe try and sign up for a practice round with Tyrrell Hatton as we share the same management company, or Rory.”
We tried to qualify for The Open – but we didn’t read the small print
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